Re-tip Ortofon Cadenza Bronze

Send it to Ortofon, you’ll basically get a brand new Bronze for cheap (relatively speaking) Not to say another shop couldn’t do it, but it probably won’t be much cheaper.

Why not ask Soundsmith? 

Good idea, noromance. I’ve sent them an email.

There are multiple re tipping companies who consistently get great reviews here so I don't think you'll have a problem with any of them. Good luck.

You should also consider turnaround time for 3rd party retipping versus Ortofon’s rebuild. And I believe SS’s retip-only service is more expensive because of the care required to preserve original cantilever - so the price difference may not be as much as you think! Ortofon’s rebuild service, at ~40% MSRP for basically a new cartridge (save for some wear on the body), is an excellent deal IMO. It’s a big advantage of the upper Ortofon MC lines. And that would be my preference, personally. Certainly, that tapered aluminum cantilever is very key to the Cadenza Bronze’s warm, musical sound - so definitely keep it!

I would be wary of a re-tip on the tapered Al cantilever. The mount Ortofon does is very clean. Are you certain a 3rd party re-tip won't come back with an extra blob of glue (i.e. higher tip mass)?

Fortunately since your Bronze is near new, you shouldn’t have to worry about this for a while. Just enjoy, and maybe start a swear jar for the eventual retip/rebuild?

Sound Smith only re-tips boron cantilevers, so it would have to be a rebuild no matter what. Still, at $650, it would’ve been $300 cheaper than Ortofon.

I could get the boron cantilever from Sound Smith for $450. That’s $500 I’d save over Ortofon, which would be a huge help. I might even prefer a faster, more compliant, stylus. The Cadenza Black has a boron cantilever. 

Are there any reasons to think this would be a bad idea? $950 is just a lot of money for me right now. I was out of work with an injury for some months.

Unless you’ve bent the exiting cantilever it’s not now you need to worry about the cost, take good care of your cartridge and  it will have gone up when the time comes anyway.

I have the other current Ortofon with a Replicant 100 stylus on an aluminium cantilever and had to get that rebuilt because I’d messed up setting the bias and after a year of daily use the cantilever wasn’t in line any more, not bent but misaligned.enough to produce intrusive sibilance where it hadn’t existed before. Take care with your bias setting.

OP how new is your Ortofon Cadenza Bronze cart? Unless you listen 20+ hrs a day (lucky you,) then you have many, many years of listening to your cartridge. Enjoy

Ortofon rebuilt my Bronze several years ago and it was better than new when it came back.  You have wonderful cartridge.  Unless you're looking for a different sound,  protect your investment when the time comes.

Thanks for your responses! The diamond is still in good shape, so this isn’t a problem now. I’m just thinking ahead. I keep an eye on it with a 60X jeweler’s loupe.